An Ember in the Snow
by Liebelit
Summary: Cain and Glitch stumble upon a needed rest at the beginning of their journey from the Northern Island to the tower. One-shot. Cain/Glitch friendship (and maybe pre-slash?)


"Cain, it's cold!" Glitch whined for the hundredth time that afternoon.

They had been walking for hours, leaving the icy scenery of the winter palace and making their way toward the tower. Most of the day had been spent on reaching the forest farther south where the temperatures weren't so chillingly low, but even after all that time there was still nothing but white snow all around them.

"I know it's cold, Glitch, I know it's cold," Cain said halfheartedly, walking a few steps ahead of the other man, "I'm the one who almost died from hypothermia, remember? If you could keep both of us warm then, you can stay warm now."

"At least in the wagon we had a furnace!"

"Well, it's not like we could take the fire with us, Glitch." Cain muttered and kept moving. A few moments later, he realized the tired footsteps behind him had stopped and he turned around to find Glitch sitting on a log covered in white. There was a soft layer of snow falling down on them and Cain couldn't help but notice how much Glitch was shivering. His cheeks were flushed and his breath was fogging as he panted softly. Cain could see his own breath in front of him as he sighed and walked over to his friend; kneeling in front of him.

"Get up, we need to keep moving," Cain ran his eyes down Glitch's shivering body again, taking in how tightly he was holding the blanket around his shoulders.

It was already late in the afternoon, the suns would begin to set at any moment, and Cain was starting to feel the cold seep into bones—again—as well. Back in the wagon, there had been a moment when he had felt almost stiflingly warm. He had wanted to rip off his clothes and jump out into the snow, away from the fire, but Glitch had been there with him, holding him back and wrapping him in a blanket anyway, making sure he was truly warm. The false sense of heat had faded long before they set out on today's journey, but being so abused by such extreme temperatures over the last few days had left Cain unable to feel just how cold it was getting until now. With the approaching evening, the fall of snow thickened and the air around them grew chillier. They just had to keep walking and get to lower ground before night fell. Then he could try to make a small fire if it was no longer snowing where they stopped and everything would be alright.

But Glitch wasn't getting up.

"Come on," Cain repeated as he put his hand against Glitch's neck.

"It hurts..." Glitch said quietly, shivering and leaning into the touch.

"What hurts?" Cain scanned him with his eyes again in concern, pulling his hand back tentatively, but then saw Glitch's brown eyes move to indicate the top of his head.

"Oh." _The zipper._

He felt bad for not thinking of how being out in the cold weather would affect his friend. He knew little about the physiological effects of headcasing besides the loss of memory and clumsiness, but having a freezing metal zipper on your head could not be good.

"Okay," Cain said, taking off his hat, "We just need to keep walking for a little while longer. Just until we get out the snow. Until then," he held out the hat to Glitch, "you can wear this."

"Really?" Taking the offered hat, the zipperhead practically beamed with excitement, "You'd let me wear your hat?"

"Yes. Now come on," Cain said as he ran his hands down Glitch's covered arms and patted one of them gently, "Up."

Smiling softly, Glitch placed the hat on his head and got to his feet with Cain's help. After stretching their stiff limbs, they started walking again together down the frozen road.

It was getting dark by the time they saw a spot of light through the trees a short distance away. They were still too close to the palace for Cain's liking, and his first thought was that it might be a camp made by longcoats who had stayed around to look for them. He was sure they must think he was dead, and that Glitch wasn't important enough to them if they had left him behind, but one could never be too careful; for all he knew they were looking for Raw. Whatever the case was, his instinct told him to stay cautious. He kept his arm around Glitch—who was squinting furiously either trying to see what the dot of light was or trying to keep his eyeballs from freezing, Cain didn't know—to keep them both as warm as possible as they walked.

"Cain, it's cold!" Glitch said again sometime later, night almost upon them and the snow not any sparser than before, "It's cold, it's cold, it's cold—and I'm not glitching! How much longer do we—" He cut his complaints short as he stared agape at what had looked like just a bright spot in the distance a while ago. From here, Cain could see it was a small building and not a large camp after all.

It was about a mile away from them in a little clearing along the road, pale grey smoke rising from the chimney and every window glowing invitingly. The warmly lit building was like an ember amid the dark, frosted trees; and noticing the sign a few feet away from it, Cain realized it was an inn.

"Is that—Oh, it is!" Glitch cried enthusiastically and almost knocked him over as he ran out of his grasp, "Thank Ozma!"

"Hang on," Cain said, taking hold of Glitch's arm before he got too far, "We don't know who might be in there, or if they'd recognize us... We're two of the most wanted men in the O.Z., remember?"

"Oh come on, tin man! As far as they know you're on the bottom of a frozen lake and I was chewed to death by mobats!" he winked at him jokingly; then adjusted the hat over his head and looked at him morosely, "Besides, I can't keep walking in this weather and you shouldn't either!" He said decidedly with a stomp of his foot in the thick snow.

"So stop being so pessimistic all the time and let's get our tushies warmed up," he disentangled himself from Cain's grasp once again and took his hand, leading them toward the little cozy-looking inn.

"Fine," Cain gave in, "Just because I don't want you to catch hypothermia. But if we're doing this," he said, pulling Glitch back toward him, "you have to follow my lead."

.o.o.o.

Night had fallen by the time they made it to the inn, and Cain decided to go over their plan one more time before going inside.

"Okay," he turned to face Glitch, "We were just passing through when our car broke down a few miles up the road, and if anyone asks we're—"

"Partners in crime, I'll remember. Now let's go in, my head's killing me! And my legs, and my arms, and my face—"

"Just let me do the talking," Cain said exasperatedly, "But if there's a single longcoat in there and a gunfight breaks out, you get down and try to get out, understand?"

"Yes, yes," Glitch bobbed his head dismissively and tugged him by his sleeve, "Why do you have to be so paranoid?"

"I'm not being paranoid, I'm being aware."

"But that won't get us any warmer!" Glitch said and lead them the rest of the way into the inn.

The first thing that hit Cain was the comfortable warmth in the room. There was a steady fire going at the back and the entire lobby was well lit by both lamps and small candles. The second thing he noticed was that there were no longcoats. In fact, the main room at least seemed to be empty; even the front desk was deserted.

"Hello?" Glitch called out before Cain could stop him, "Anyone home?"

There was a clatter coming from the door behind the counter and in a moment Cain had his gun ready. He quickly lowered it a second later though, when no one but a large friendly-looking woman came out the door; a pleasant smell wafting in with her.

"Oh excuse me," she said hurriedly, wiping her hands on her apron, "We don't get many people coming through here as you can see and I was just readying dinner."

"It smells great!" Glitch pitched in happily, taking a long sniff at the air.

"Why thank you. But oh—what happen to you, dear?" she said as she took in his pale shaky appearance, "You look about ready to drop!"

"We were caught up in the snow." Cain jumped in, wrapping an arm around Glitch's shoulders, "Our car broke down a few miles away and we've been walking out in the snow for hours."

He rubbed Glitch's arm, making a show of warming him up. "We were pretty lost out there, but luckily we found this place.

"Oh dear, thank Ozma... It's dangerous out there," she whispered, "A group of those nasty longcoats passed through here not too long ago, looking for some wanted criminals or something and tearing up the place. I try not to get too involved in those matters."

"That's terrible," Cain said in feigned concern, "Do you know what they look like? Maybe we've seen them around."

"I'm sorry but no... I just know that one of them is one of those headcases," she said with disdain, "I just hope you didn't come across them anywhere."

"Nope," Glitch laughed nervously, joining the conversation against Cain's wishes, "None of those basket half-wits anywhere!"

"Well," Cain intervened, "We'd like a—"

Before he could ask for a room and get them out of there without Glitch blurting out something he shouldn't, a man came through the door behind the hostess, and fixed them with a pointed look.

"You two come from the city?" he asked them gruffly,

"We were just passing through here," Cain nodded, "we were trying to visit a friend. But we got lost out there and then our car broke down."

"You wouldn't happen to see some fugitives around these parts, would you? A girl, a viewer, and two men?"

"No," Cain said, tightening his arm around Glitch, "It's just been my husband and I on the road."

He felt Glitch make a little jump against him and sighed inwardly. _Of course he forgot._

"Yep, just us! Just Ca—"

"Come on, sweetheart," Cain slid his arm to Glitch's waist and held him close, "I'm sure these good people wouldn't mind talking more but we're getting their floor all wet. We'd like a room please."

With that he reached into his coat's pocket with his other hand and took out the scattered coins and bills he had pillaged from DeMilo's wagon. Thankfully it had been enough, or maybe the woman had taken pity on Glitch's snow-covered form wrapped in the soaked blanket. But whatever the case, they had excused themselves for the night, politely refusing the woman's offer of dinner, and made a hasty retreat to their room.

"That went better than I thought it would." Cain said once the door was closed behind them.

They could have easily given themselves away in a second; with only one wrong thing said, or one wrong sentence overheard. He had the fleeting thought that maybe he really was too paranoid as Glitch had said earlier, but quickly dismissed it; they could never be too careful, even with only a couple of people in the middle of nowhere. The small inn was clearly one of those very old houses that had been turned into a lodge over time, and the room they were given was small but agreeable.

There was a chest with a mirror against one wall, next to the door to an adjacent bathroom, and by another wall was a window with a view of the spot they had been at not long ago. Under the window was a nightstand with a lit lamp, its twin standing on the other side of the large single bed. Glitch took no notice of anything else in the room and immediately shrugged off the blanket that was heavy with melted snow and ran to the folded clean sheets. Cain walked over to him a moment later after shaking off the snow on him that hadn't thawed yet.

"You can take the bed," he told Glitch as he took the hat from his head and shook the snow off the brim, "I'll take the floor."

He didn't mention that he wouldn't be sleeping.

"Are you sure?" Glitch asked innocently, "There's more than enough space, if we could share the cot in that dingy wagon then we can _definitely _share this." He was already sitting huddled on the bed, covered in several white sheets everywhere but his head.

"It's fine," Cain insisted as he took a couple of sheets and one of the pillows and let them fall to the floor beside the bed before looking out the window. "We shouldn't be here," he said under his breath, looking outside.

Both moons were already out and high in the sky, giving plenty of illumination to the unchanging white landscape a couple stories down. He wanted to be out there, in the snow and through the frost, making progress and getting closer to saving the princess. Instead, he was stuck here for the night. But as much as he wanted to keep moving, even though his muscles ached after the day they'd had, he couldn't force Glitch back into the cold.

"We—we could go if you want," Glitch said quietly,

Cain looked at him buried in the tangled sheets then out at the snow, his mind already made, "That might raise too many questions."

"So we can stay?" Glitch asked hopefully,

"Yeah,"

"Yay!"

"We'll leave as soon as the first sun is out though, so get a good night's sleep, zipperhead."

"You got it!"

Cain didn't do so much as turn the lamp off and drop to the floor, his arms crossed and hat turned down, when he heard, "Are you _sure_ you don't want to share?"

"I'm sure, Glitch. Go to sleep." He said as he leaned back on the propped up blankets and pillow.

"Okay..."

_Good._

"Cain?"

"Yeah?" he sighed,

"Thanks for the hat. It really helped." Glitch said, looking down at him with wide eyes from the edge of the bed, "And it's a really nice hat."

"I'm glad it helped," Cain said honestly, "It's the least I could do."

"_Well..._" Glitch leaned down over the edge, almost invading Cain's space, "You could share the bed."

Cain looked up at him skeptically, "You can't still be cold, can you?"

"Just a tiny little bit," Glitch said, biting his bottom lip,

A few days ago Cain wouldn't have agreed to Glitch's often childish requests even under serious circumstances, but after spending time with the headcase and seeing what he was capable of he did it almost without a second thought. Just this once, he thought; just out of sympathy.

"I think we've shared enough body heat by now to rival the suns." Cain said as he got into bed beside Glitch and drew the covers over them. It might have been cold outside but the inn was well heated and there was no chance of catching hypothermia under this bundle of sheets.

"Hey, it beats freezing to death."

It really did.

.o.o.o.

Cain awoke the next morning to the suns' equally bright glare, somehow having forgotten his plans of not sleeping and keeping watch.

There was no clock in the room so he had no idea what time it was, but he knew they had stayed far longer than he had wanted. Glitch was still sleeping restfully beside him. He was curled on his side and had his face half buried in the pillow and half pressed against Cain's shoulder, an arm casually thrown over Cain's chest as if they did this every night—which, Cain guessed, considering their sleeping arrangements for the last days, they sort of had for a little while. Like this, Glitch was the perfect image of a comfortable sleep; and as much as Cain hated having to wake him up when he looked so peaceful, they had to get going.

"Wake up," Cain said as he rubbed his eyes with the heel of one hand and poked Glitch on the side with the other, "Rise and shine, headcase. We overslept."

Glitch turned over onto his stomach and mumbled something unintelligible into the pillow.

"We need to get up, Glitch. Wake up." Cain said again, moving a hand up Glitch's back and giving him a firm shake by the shoulder, "We've lost enough time here."

After a little jolt, Glitch tried to sink deeper into the mattress with a whine but then opened his tightly shut eyes and stared at Cain in confusion. He moved onto his side again and drew the blankets closer around himself anxiously.

"Um," he said with a frown, looking around the room and shifting on the bed, "Do I know you?"

"Good morning, sweetheart. It's just me," Cain said, keeping a hand on his chest to calm him down, "Your husband." He added in jest.

"Cain!" Glitch said with a spark of recognition, "Good mor—My husband?!"

"Just until we get out of here..."

"_Wait,_" Glitch frowned again, "When did we get married?!"

"It's just pretend, Glitch. Remember?" Cain flopped back down on the bed as he sighed and shook his head, a smile threatening to form on his face despite everything.

"Oh," Glitch blushed a little, "_Oh!_ I remember! Sorry..." he said sheepishly,

"It's okay," Cain said softly, really meaning it, as he turned to look at Glitch, "One thing though... You can't recognize my face when you wake up but you remembered me calling you sweetheart?"

Glitch's blushed deepened, "It's just—No one's ever called me anything like that before... Not like you did anyway... I—I liked it," he tried looking at anywhere but him and ended up staring down at Cain's hand on his chest.

"Even if it's just pretend!" he added quickly, "It was nice... and different, and _memorable_. No one's ever called me that before... No one's ever called me that before."

Cain wasn't so sure it was a glitch.

"I just remembered because it was, well, sweet." Glitch went on, "That's something to hold onto."

In spite of wanting to get up and move out as soon as possible, Cain lay on the bed with Glitch for another short moment. He looked better now, less confused and startled, smiling faintly as the sunlight shining through the window touched his pale face. Cain thought of what Glitch had said, how a simple word or gesture could be enough to make things just a little more bearable.

Glitch had given Cain something to hold onto; by giving him the tin horse, by just being there with him and reminding him of what mattered. If Glitch needed something to hold onto, if Cain had that something, then he would do his best to give that to his friend.

He gave a last gentle nudge to Glitch's arm, prompting him to finally get out of bed. Once they were both done with necessities and ready to leave, they exited the room together and started descending the stairs; Cain remembered to take off his hat and put it back on Glitch's zippered head just before reaching the ground floor.

Unlike last night, there were a few people gathered in the main room, and a couple more in a dining area eating breakfast. Though quiet, the atmosphere in the lodge seemed considerably livelier than the previous night's awkward apparent desertedness. The same woman that had received them last night offered them breakfast as kindly as she had offered them dinner. This time Cain didn't refuse though, and instead took the food gratefully in wrapped packages to go; even though, glancing at a clock in the vestibule, he could see it wasn't as late as he had thought upon waking up.

"Thank you for everything," he said with a fake smile but honest gratitude as he opened the door for Glitch who was cheerfully carrying all the food, and walked out after him.

"That was the perfect break," Glitch said contently as he munched on a sandwich, "My husband though?"

"Hey, I didn't have much time to think of something else." Cain said in his defense, "Two random men would have been too suspicious, and it's not exactly like we could pass for brothers, sweetheart."

The light snowfall from the day before had ceased, and the layer covering the ground felt noticeably thinner under the suns' steady rays. They spent most of the morning in silence, simply enjoying each other's company as they ate and walked; getting closer to their destination with each step.

And for a short-lived moment, Cain realized he had let Glitch wear his hat even after the snow had thawed.

* * *

AN: I don't know why I wrote this, half of it doesn't make any sense but it was an excuse to try another version of "I'll lead, you follow" and a reason behind "sweetheart".


End file.
